Everybody Loves Raymond: Pilot

Everybody Loves Raymond: Pilot
CBS
September 13, 1996
Sitcom
DVD
B-

The regulars:

• Peter Boyle as Ray's father Frank Barone
• Brad Garrett as Ray's brother Robert Barone
• Patricia Heaton as Ray's wife Debra Barone
• Doris Roberts as Ray's mother Marie Barone
• Ray Romano as the Danzaly named Ray Barone
• Madylin Sweeten as Ray's four-year-old daughter Ally Barone

(The twins would be recast because of the gap between the shooting of the pilot and the rest of the season.)

This is a show I was vaguely aware of at the time, but it was when I wasn't watching much TV, and I was mostly amused that Doris Roberts had hardly changed since she was the mother of the title character on Angie two decades earlier.  I've caught bits and pieces on cable (it seems to air about one-quarter as much as The Big Bang Theory), and it always seemed to be either Ray and his wife arguing in their bedroom, or Ray and various relatives arguing in the kitchen.  In some ways, it's the basic sitcom formula, domestic version.  I was actually surprised in watching this, including listening to the commentary, how prominent the kids were, because I never seemed to catch them in my scattered viewing.  I was leaning towards a C+, but the Fruit of the Month scene is genuinely funny.  More sequences like that would be welcome.

Co-creator Philip Rosenthal would write 22 more episodes.  Michael Lembeck, yes, that Michael Lembeck, would direct five more early episodes.